


Something New

by Merfilly



Category: Ship Series - Anne McCaffrey, Talents Series - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Brain Ship, F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-13
Updated: 2012-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-18 13:42:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/561691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kiria is one who has never been pushed, because neither Kincaid nor Laria wanted her to be forced. However, when you are a powerful Talent, not having a focus can be a bitch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something New

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EllieMurasaki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/gifts).



Kiria was not one to avoid trouble when it came looking for her. She had grown up on Clarf, had the Raven streak of mischief a mile wide, and had been called as opposite to her parents in temperament as possible. Her great-great grandmother had been known to call her a 'wild spirit' when the matriarch of the Raven clan had still been living.

The problem was that trouble so rarely came looking now. With the 'Dini population problems curtailed, the Hivers settled out to be less of a problem, and no really new events other than galactic expansion, the young Prime's life had a tendency towards boredom more often than not. She did not have the pressure on her to take a Tower that the generation before her had faced, as her clan and others had been prolific enough to meet even the ever-expanding need for Primes. She had thought about joining the service, and being a ship Prime like her uncle Thian, but that seemed every bit as boring -- just due to the long periods of being stuck with only a small group of people.

Today had her rambling around on the Raven-Lyon family compound at Iota Aurigae, avoiding most of her extended family and their assorted menagerie of animals as well as the pairs of 'Dinis that were matched up to the humans. That she did not have her own 'Dinis, even having grown up on Clarf, was a point of distinction in her mind. She knew it had bothered her parents' 'Dinis in the past, but the way she dreamed had never meshed well with the Mrdini minds at all.

 _Kiria,_ Damia called lightly against her mind. Of all the extended family, Kiria felt most at ease with her grandparents on her mother's side. Damia seemed to understand her more than anyone but Isthia had, and Afra … well, nothing phased Afra, but he always seemed to have the right words for how she was feeling.

_Granddam?_

_Your mother wanted to know if you were feeling any better._ The words were brushed with an overlay of the message from Laria, and full of maternal love and an attempt at understanding.

Kiria considered. While she had not intended to kick over a hornet's nest on Clarf by suggesting the Mrdini were growing complacent, she did feel that she had only asked a legitimate question. Her mind was still stinging from the outright violence aimed her way, and she was just as repulsed by the impressions she had received from those who had reacted with enthusiasm for her small speech at a formal dinner.

She didn't want the return to violence she had read about from the Hiver Wars. She only thought both species were being too cautious in their expansions.

 _Tell her I am well, next time._ It was only a half-truth. She was getting over the humiliation and the other emotions connected to her near-exile from her homeworld, but being here had not done anything to help her find an answer to her own restlessness and the feeling there was far more to the universe than they knew.

 _I shall. Dinner's in another hour, if you wish to come home._ With that, Damia pulled away. It left Kiria wrinkling her nose, as she considered who would likely be home too. So many cousins left her feeling alienated, and some of them just refused to understand why she could not just fall into place as an FT &T contract employee.

Earth Prime Jeff Raven, her great-grandfather, had not pushed her. He did not need another Prime desperately enough to cajole her along. She did appreciate that, even while a part of her ego told her it was because he knew she didn't belong, just like all the others.

"Why can't I find my place?" she asked the wilds around herself. Nothing answered her, not from outside herself or within, and she sighed. With a firm resolution to just be herself until she found her path, she started the long hike back home. Maybe none of her cousins would make her wish to throttle them tonight.

And maybe horses would fly.

`~`~`~`~`

Damia settled on Afra's shoulder, hearing the house finally quiet down for the night. She sighed softly, wondering just what she could do to help her wild-child granddaughter out. Again, she had wound up curbing some of the young ones with mental rebukes to get them to quit needling Kiria. It was not Kiria's fault that she was so outspoken, or that she didn't want the same things as the others. Kincaid had been firm with everyone that Kiria would be free to choose her own path, and Laria had backed him. Laria had been careful to not pressure any of her children, actually, and Kincaid had been supportive of that tactic, though only Kiria was his.

She had to smile a little; Kincaid was very much the son-in-law to her and Afra, for Laria had never found anyone else to suit her temperament as well as her partner did. It did not matter that they were not wife and husband as so many other Tower teams seemed to be; what they had worked for them.

"Credit for your thoughts?" Afra asked.

"Like you can't hear them," she teased, but it was true. All her life, she'd had Afra, even at her most rebellious stage. And while it was tempting to hope that perhaps Kiria would find a match like that, Damia was no wide-eyed teenager who still thought love cured everything.

"The problem is that Kiria has never been stretched to find what she can do." Afra petted down Damia's bare back, always most at peace when she was close and they could touch.

"See? You did know." Damia snuggled into his chest, closing her eyes. "I think she knows that. I think that's why she is so restless. Our children had crisis after crisis to manage, each shaping them into who they are."

"It didn't help that your father needed every single one of them as soon as they were capable of using their abilities." Afra sighed softly, glad those days were over... at least for now. "I understand why the Mrdini were so angry. They fought the Hivers far longer than we did, love."

"And saying that they were going to lose their edge when something bigger showed up was extremely undiplomatic, I agree. But there has to be a way she can find her calling without inviting another interstellar war by saying all the things have already happened." Damia sighed in memory of just how the entire clan had cringed at the invitation to the powers of worse.

"Invite Zara here for a time," Afra mused. "And I think it is high time I send the current lot of grandchildren, minus the youngest and Kiria, off to train under other Towers or ships."

Damia raised up so she could look at him, a small curve on her lips at his wisdom. "Invite our oddest, late bloomer to see if she and her niece match a bit?"

"I refuse to say it can't hurt; Zara's empathy is always slanted oddly. But it's worth trying." Afra leaned in and kissed her lightly. "Sleep. It's what busy Tower Primes who refuse to retire do when their Tower is out of optimum range."

"Ha! As though I would ever retire before mother does!" Damia shot back, but she settled again, and let him lull her to sleep, surrounded by 'Dini dreams as always.

`~`~`~`~`

Kiria was, of course, suspicious when told that assignments had come in for those cousins who were enrolled in the FT&T training programs. She grew even more wary after a few days of peace and quiet had passed before her Aunt Zara suddenly arrived, fresh from a XenoBiology tour on one of the newer worlds.

"We got set up?" Zara inquired as they rode the outlying property markers to check them for Afra, who was beginning to feel the press of hard work and age enough to not ride as easily as he had once.

Kiria looked over at her aunt, wondering if Zara had picked that up from her, or just been thinking over the series of events in her own head. "Maybe. Why're you here?"

"Mother knew I was between assignments and asked me to come." Zara smiled easily. "When I got here and the crowd of nieces and nephews was down to the four youngest and you, I got suspicious." Zara, unlike her siblings, had never chosen to settle down and find a man to create progeny with. Kiria hadn't had much to do with the medical and science-oriented woman, but had heard enough to understand that Zara didn't fit many expectations of the Lyon's Pride.

"So I guess the question is, why?" Kiria replied to that.

"I don't think it is," Zara said bluntly. "I think you already know that. You're different than the typical Raven-Gwyn-Lyon offspring, and so am I. So the real question is, how can I help you?"

Kiria blinked in surprise. She wasn't used to someone else being that blunt and cutting straight to the difficult parts of a conversation. "I don't know, Aunt Zara. I hope coming here would help me figure out what I wanted, but it's still just a push to find something. Something big, something new..."

"First, knock off the 'aunt' business. Second, no wonder the family was all riled up." Zara grinned to take the sting out of it. "The last several 'something bigs' have injured or killed so many of our clan, Kiria. Earth Prime nearly died in the early Hiver war, lost his own father to it. The next alien that poked its head in came close to killing Mother and Father... and did kill her brother, the one your mom is named for. Then Roj almost got killed by an overzealous 'Dini during the war." Zara sighed softly, still not certain of how that entire fiasco had happened. "And when the 'Dinis who were unhappy with peace and those humans who were being stupidly xenophobic teamed up, we almost lost Earth Prime, the Rowan, and a lot of close friends."

Kiria had known each of those incidents, vaguely, but had never really weighed them all into one pile like Zara had just thrown them at her. It made a slight bit of sense to her now, helped her to see why she had stepped so fully into the muck on this issue.

Tying in that there were still very hostile and aggressive Mrdini among their allies who were looking for a new path to glory, and she could actually admit that she had set off a spark in an explosives warehouse.

"I don't mean new or big in that way," Kiria finally answered, as they had ridden a few klicks while the younger woman contemplated and considered all that Zara had laid out against her own inclinations.

"Intent is not always enough to assuage pain, Kiria." The xenobiologist looked over at her niece, who was nodding at that, at least understanding that part of how this had all made her the outcast of the family. "But... enough of that. Moving forward, if what you want is new things, why aren't you considering the Service?"

Only the fact the question was asked with true curiosity and not the disparaging 'why didn't you think of that already' tone kept Kiria from exploding with frustration.

"Even with all the concessions given to Talent, especially Primes, it's too stilted, too confining. And I do like people, Zara. I just … don't like the same ones over and over again." Kiria looked up at the sky, wishing it was darker so she could see the spectacular beauty of Iota Aurigae's night. Somewhere, maybe far away from any world they had ever known, something was out there and waiting for her to find it. Kiria knew it deep in her soul.

"So you want to explore, but you don't want to be confined, and yet you want to be exposed to people," Zara summed up.

"When you say it like that, it makes me sound like I want everything under all the suns!" Kiria huffed out, and then she laughed. It was deep and rich and warm, full of the self-realization that she was something of an impossibility.

Zara joined her in the laughter, knowing what it was like to not know the true drive and passion of life, to only have the itch to poke at it all until something bit back. "It's hard to know what you want when it hasn't named itself to you yet, Kiria." She nudged her pony over closer to the young woman. "You may be the eldest of the next generation, but I think everyone's been expecting too much of you, just because they all had their lives pushed into pigeonholes pretty young, and then let their own kids assume that the same pigeonholes would suit them. Your parents gave you a chance to be yourself, not an FT&T puppet. But it left you with all the power, and none of the focus."

Kiria listened to the impartial summary, and then nodded at her aunt. "That makes a lot of sense from the analyitical side. Still doesn't tell me what I should do though."

The xenobiologist snorted and grinned. "Someone, anyone, telling you what you **should** do what be a very fast way to make certain you never do it at all."

The Clarf-born and raised Prime rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean!"

"And I only just got a handle on who you might be, Kiria. Give me at least the traditional three days to work miracles!" Zara retorted facetiously.

That gained shared laugh, before both riders focused on their actual chore.

`~`~`~`~`

 _Did you get a solid impression of her?_ Afra asked, once he knew his granddaughter was sleeping, but still confining this to telepathy.

Zara eyed her Capellan father with playfully suspicious features. _You invite me to a 'vacation' just to get me to spy on my oldest sister's oldest child. Dad, I think you worked with the Rowan too long!_

_How do you think I survive your mother?_

_I heard that!_ from the woman in question came over top of Zara's immense amusement at her parents.

 _Seriously,_ Afra redirected after a playful equivalent of a mental pillow fight with his wife had wrapped up. _What is your impression of her?_

_She's unfocused, like the family thinks, but only because she feels no solid, single draw. She's... She's what you used to say of Grandmother, before Grandfather came into her life. Discontent, knowing there is more out there, incapable of touching it, because there is no solid concept of what._

Damia, listening in, actually flushed, making Afra spare her a physical look and reach for her hand. She took it, and he drew her in. There were so many ways that Damia could relate to that, even though hers had only ever been a quest for companionship.

 _And no unconscious leanings you could find, to help us provide a conduit to her needs?_ Afra asked Zara, even as he cuddled his wife knowingly. She never forgot Larak, nor did he, for the man's sacrifice had been to save their love.

 _Let me look into what systems are being cleared for exploration, and which ones are on the backburner. Then I'll answer you,_ Zara sent very thoughtfully. Afra could not get more without prying, and he was far too cognizant of the need for mental privacy to ever do that.

_Alright, daughter. Rest well, and try to enjoy your vacation after all?_

_Oh I will. I like mysteries, you know._ Zara laid down on her bed then as she broke communication with her parents, thinking about her niece. If Zara's thinking was moving in the right direction, she thought she knew just how to handle the young woman's need for 'new' and unregulated companionship in one fell swoop.

`~`~`~`~`

Kiria looked at the star charts that Zara had laid in front of her, curious, but not comprehending.

"Out in the Draconis constellation, there is a zone of potentially habitable systems that have been known since the Kepler craft started identifying exoplanets, back in the twenty-first century," Zara said. "However, even the attempted mission to explore Thuban, as near, relatively, as it is, ended in a string of vanished explorers."

"Okay, with you so far on the history, but not following how it applies to me," Kiria said, completely puzzled now.

"There are less official explorations out there," Zara said quietly. "As you are not contracted to FT&T..."

That made the younger woman's eyes go very wide. "Illegal exploration?"

"No, that's only exploration in claimed systems by us or an ally," Zara pointedly stated. "These... explorations are from entrepreneurial adventurers, and they might just stand a chance with a Prime to back them up, on finally cracking the mystery of the Dragon."

Kiria thought, and then she looked at Zara. "Do I want to know how you know this, or how it is that you apparently have a way to put me in touch with them?"

The xenobiologist just grinned. "Never give up all your secrets, Kiria. It keeps life fun."

`~`~`~`~`

Kiria stepped out of the personnel carrier, not certain what to expect; Damia had 'ported her after a long heart to heart between her, Zara, and Kiria. The sun here had the blue-white intensity of a very hot star, but was at enough of a distance to be manageable, unlike Clarf's primary.

The rudimentary landing pads, the fact her carrier had landed in a jury-rigged cradle, and that she was alone almost made Kiria second-guess her decision to do this. She could easily reach back to Damia and pull herself back to Iota Aurigae.

 _I would be very displeased if you did not at least give us a small chance to win you over, Prime Kiria Dano-Lyon._ The warm, rich tones were very feminine and at least T-3 strong in her head. _Yes, I am Talented, but I did not fit well in the organization of FT &T. So I went corporate._

 _I think I see?_ Kiria looked all around, trying to determine where to go. All she could see was a low bunker, the kind that housed generators and storage, and a sleek ship that was relatively new in design and technology. _Where..._

_Come to the ship, and we will be introduced._

_With such an invitation, how could I resist?_ Kiria replied, with only a hint of sarcasm in it.

A rippling laugh met that edge, before contact faded out. The young woman crossed the landing area to the ship and its mysterious crew.

The hatch opened before she reached it, and a boarding ladder fell down for her to use, rather than a ramp.

 _Ramps are unnecessary weight,_ the voice returned to her, rich with an awareness of Kiria's surprise.

 _That makes sense._ Kiria hauled herself up into the ship, and watched the ladder retract into a storage compartment built into the floor. "Efficient."

"I thought so. The ship is mostly my design, with input from the rest of the crew," a verbal version of the mental voice told her. "Welcome aboard _Draconis One_ , as the ship is called on official registers."

"And you are?" Kiria pressed, walking along as a glow-bug guide along the floor led the way to her destination.

"Ship's operations, pilot, and mistress," the voice said, playfully drawing out the mystery of her identity. "With you, we now have a crew of six, including myself."

Kiria tried not to be appalled at that small a number of people, but the promises of hidden things and new ones at that was enough to offset her social needs.

"And I will meet them..."

"When you reach the rec room, after you drop your carrisak in the assigned cabin. Your cabin is both sleep, hygiene, and work oriented, to maximize space use within the ship. We have been converting what had been a communication officer's space ever since T-1 Zara Gwyn-Lyon let us know she had found someone willing to cooperate with our project."

"Still not sure what I signed on for," Kiria told the disembodied voice as she followed the guide into a cabin that was tight on space but had what she needed to transport supplies and communiques. "Not bad, not bad!" She stowed the carrisak in a wall locker after finding the control for it.

"Basically to boldly go," the voice answered her, a small laugh sneaking into that.

"Right. Into the Draco systems, to find out why no other expedition has ever returned. And possibly join their number." Kiria looked in the mirror over the 'fresher and decided she was presentable, then turned to follow the guide back out.

"Between you and I and the rest of the crew, let's make certain that doesn't happen," the voice answered her. "My generators should enable you to lock onto the nearest FT&T Prime at any distance and perform a push-pull to get us out of danger, should we encounter it. I am a T-3, verging on T-2, and the rest of the crew is rated T-6 to T-4, all able to assist a 'port merge."

"You've thought of everything," Kiria answered that, rolling her eyes as she did. 

"Miss Dano-Lyon, if you would refrain from dismissing our efforts toward this goal, I think you will find that we want to succeed for the betterment of mankind. Something exists in the Draco systems that is either such nirvana no one can leave it, or threatening enough that even the original armed and armored expeditions sent by Earth's military failed to overcome it."

"I'm sorry," Kiria answered, almost on reflex, because the rebuke was couched in the same gentle disappointment her father would use on her, the rare times Kincaid had called her to task.

"Well, it's a risky undertaking, looking at it from the outside, I am certain." 

The guide had brought Kiria to a large cabin equipped with food processors, tables, and a few gaming devices, as well as four other people. Kiria knew on looking that none of these four were the voice's owner, as they each radiated on a lower level of empathic vibrations, beyond the simple fact only one was a woman.

"Welcome, Prime Dano-Lyon," one of the three men greeted her. 

She filed her impressions swiftly so she could get to the introductions. The first to speak felt like a full T-4, likely kinetic only, and was the shortest of them, including the woman and herself. Next to him was a taller, slender man who possibly had Capellan ancestry if his more-than-sallow complexion was anything to go by. The third man was dark skinned and full of life in ways that made Kiria just know he had empathic ratings. The woman, taller than Kiria or even Kincaid, was also broad and full-muscled, possibly from one of the high gee adapted worlds.

"Thank you, and please... I'm just Kiria. I've only ever subbed at a tower, on a case by case basis. Prime is... far too formal for me."

"As you wish it." The man smiled at her. "I am Dustin Li. This is Gunther Njordson," he introduced the faintly Capellan-seeming man. "Ahmad ibn Fasil there, and Kynthia Taurice." The darker man and the massive woman both nodded to her in their own turn, while Gunther flashed a smile too broad and bright in features that reminded Kiria of Afra, just not so green.

"I am grateful to meet you all," Kiria said, but she looked around for the captain of the vessel.

"And I will introduce myself, Dustin." The voice was present again, but focused at a central point in the room, near the group. "Kiria, I am Sophia Vasco."

"You..." Kiria stopped the breach of manners, and tried to find a polite way to inquire, but the voice replied first.

"I was involved in a mining accident on Iota Aurigae when I was younger. It led to my Talent emergence, and left my body in a severely crippled state. Rather than accept cybernetics to make me capable of interacting with humanity on the terms the doctors then felt best, I made a request to join the brain-ship program instead." Amusement filtered into her voice. "I was not considered sane, but Zara, your aunt, was brought in to make the final call, and she warranted that I was fully able to choose."

"Oh." That finally made sense of how Zara was connected to these people, at least. "I am honored to meet you, Sophia Vasco."

"And now, with our crew complete, we shall decide at what point we wish to penetrate the Draco systems, a decision that will be heavily influenced by your teleportation abilities, Kiria," Sophia told her, lighting up a display screen and pulling up the major points of Draco.

"I think we should go directly for Thuban," Ahmad said. "It may not have much in the way of planetary systems, but it is a known referent and it holds a distinct place in prehistoric lore of Earth. Lore that has, over time, proven to have connection to the larger mysteries of life."

Kiria blinked at him, then noted the distance between Thuban and Earth. It was small enough that she would easily be able to get either Prime Raven or Prime Gwyn-Raven to 'extend a hand' to her if she needed it. "I would not be adverse to that, if you teach me some of this lore you speak of along the way." 

"Gladly," Ahmad said, before looking at his shipmates. 

"One point's good as another," Kynthia said.

"And it is still close to populated space," Dustin added.

"Can you get us closer to it so Sophia's using less power?" Gunther asked, immediately marking himself out as the engineer of the outfit.

"Let me eat, study the charts, and then I will answer you," Kiria told him.

"Then I will launch myself and get us underway, unless the vectors will throw you off, Kiria," Sophia answered that.

"They won't, but if you'll give me the rotational speed of this planet and its upper atmospheric reach, plus the true force of its gravitational pull, I should be able to lift you into space, and reduce your fuel consumption, placing you just where you'll have enough counter-force to push off on."

"I love her already!" Gunther rejoiced as the expedition began to click into place.

`~`~`~`~`

Kiria studied every detail of the myths and legends about Thuban, which had once been the North Star as far as the ancient Egyptians had been concerned. She also looked at each expedition that had set sail for the Draco systems, looking at ship complements, specifications, and goals.

How not a single one had ever even sent a buoy back left her in a state of complete puzzlement. It seemed like the more primitive technology had always been good for failsafe methods.

"Sophia, are you around?" Kiria asked, having grown accustomed to the captain's company, but knowing she did have to ask for it.

"I can be." The voice settled from the communication board at Kiria's right hand. It was almost as if Kiria was talking to someone just out of sight.

"What about the variations in emissions from several of the Draconian primaries? I know they have been assigned as either binary disruptions or normal variable stars, but the mathematical curve on them seems... predictable."

"Gunther and Ahmad commented on that when we were first studying it. Current theory is that an unknown or unidentified dark space mass is central to the systems and thus pulls at the stellar fields."

"Hmm." Kiria considered that possibility, then shook her head. "I don't think it is a matter of subtraction, but amplification. Which would help explain the preponderance of novae there too. Stars being amplified would burn their cores faster."

"Something that can amplify systems that sprawl over those kind of stellar distances seems far fetched," Sophia said in a dubious tone.

Kiria smiled with her answer. "Yeah, and once upon a time, Talents were dismissed as batty people with delusions of grandeur. We can't afford to ignore any theory, if we're going to solve this mystery in a profitable fashion."

"Point. We'll discuss it tomorrow." Kiria's data screens clicked off on the save screen. "For now," Sophia said, cutting off a protest. "It is down time and you will sleep, Prime. You must stay rested, in case your skills are suddenly needed."

Kiria sighed, but... it felt good to be valued as well. "Yes ma'am."

`~`~`~`~`

"Full stop!" Ahmad cried out, and Kiria leaned hard into the generators, anchoring with both Sophia and Dustin, to kill all velocity attached the the _Draconis One_. The Prime turned her limited empathy outward, and began to shiver at the drifting cold emptiness that lay ahead of their path.

"What is it?" Kynthia asked, even as she and Gunther inspected the instruments. "Null readings across the board. It does not exist, so far as our instruments are reading."

"I feel it, lying like a skin over the sector, guardian and killer alike," Ahmad murmured. "A thin region of nothing, cutting off all of the systems from the rest of our galaxy."

"Who knows what it would do to any ship that intruded?" Sophia wondered aloud.

"Kill us dead, no doubt," Dustin grumbled.

Kiria closed her eyes, and tried to 'see' the blackness more clearly, opening herself to the rare trick some Talents had for out of body exploration. Astral projection was risky, but her body was safe and sound with Sophia and crew. She needed to see...

… and then she could. The skin, for Ahmad was correct, that lay protectively around the systems that comprised the Draco constellation, at least the portion that was most easily reached from Centauri or Earth or any of the other human-inhabited systems was anything but lifeless. It pulsed with the teeming energies that maintained it, a force-shield that kept the worlds behind it cloaked in mystery.

It was an ancient defense system, but there was no malice in it. Of that, Kiria was certain. She gathered herself and made certain her anchor lines to her body were secure, then reached outward.

_Do you see us? Can you hear us? We seek peaceful exploration, and wish to pass unharmed._

The concepts disappeared into the blackness, swallowed by it. Kiria's nerves stretched taut, and she almost fell back into her body before the blackness shimmered, and a mirror of her projection appeared in front of her. It was human, shaped just like her, but inverted in color like a negative image.

_All who come pass through, none return. Yet none ever asked._

_We are curious but wish no harm._

_I will show you, so you may choose._

The negative image reached out, and Kiria found herself matching the motion, hands coming up to meet their opposites...

`~`~`~`~`~`

Kiria's eyes fluttered open to find Ahmad and Kynthia kneeling over her, the cool of the ship air touching bare skin where her ship suit had been opened for metamorphic massage techniques.

"Ow."

"She's alive, Soph."

Kynthia's words preceded the big woman from scooping the Prime up and setting her back into the ergonomic working chair in Kyria's cabin.

"What did you do, Kyria?" Ahmad asked, eyes wild with the ragged edges of what he had been able to follow.

"I did something I've never done before; I asked for permission," Kiria said with a small laugh. She looked to see Dustin and Gunther at her doorway, and waved them to come in, aware the ship was still stationary, and also knowing they were safe.

"And?" Sophia's word was drawn out.

"The ships who came before never saw the barrier. It is... a transport zone. And I think if a few salvage wrecks over in our own systems were ever traced more accurately, I'd say we'd find the previous expeditions. With their nav systems calibrated for straight line distances, and only limited supplies, it's likely the barrier's 'throw' put them in human systems but so scrambled they stayed lost. Or, maybe, that they landed on M-Classes and became lost colonies."

"So it's unintentional harm," Dustin grumbled.

"The barrier doesn't hold all of the systems we label as Draconian, but it does cover most of the ones closest, interstellar-distances, to humanity. It exists to keep things out, yes, but also to keep things in." Kiria shuddered slightly. "We, nor the Mrdini, nor the Hivers are the oldest species to know travel. Others have come and gone. What the skin guards is … a remnant of such a race, responsible for so much of the black matter in the galaxy."

"Really?" Gunther's eyes went wide. "We've long known to avoid the black matter, but you're saying it's not natural?"

"It's a by-product of an ancient race's travels, and when they realized the harm they had caused, they confined the ships here, and locked them away." Kiria rubbed her temples. "I know more, but... it's all jumbled."

"So what now, Captain?" Dustin asked. "Sounds like we can't go in there."

Sophia made a contemplative sound, then spoke slowly. "Kiria, you said only some of Draco. Do you know where the skin ends, and which systems we can still explore?"

Kiria smiled, hand moving to the comm speaker set in her chair's arm. "Certainly do, and there's plenty new to still find."

"Then we'll rest a ship-day and continue on," Sophia decided. "Clear out of the Prime's quarters so she can rest, and we'll choose our course in the morning."

The four flesh-and-blood members of the crew obeyed, calling off well-wishes to their fifth before exiting. When Kiria was alone, but too wiped to move from chair to bed, the lights dimmed all on their own and a blanket 'ported around her.

"Sophia?"

"I take care care of mine, even when mine are as stubborn and foolhardy as a Prime," the captain murmured from the speaker. Kiria's eyes closed, fingers still on the speaker.

"I can handle that."

"Good."

`~`~`~`~`


End file.
